Who Do You Think You Are?
by lemzii
Summary: Merlin is the only one from his school going to Winterford Sixth Form College - which means he doesn't know anyone. He's has to struggle like a fish out of water and a certain blonde haired prat isn't helping matters. Merlin/Arthur Arthur/Gwen.
1. Chapter 1

He had been dreading this day for a while now. The first day of college, a new college where everyone has to make new friends and meet new people. Let's just say, Merlin wasn't the best with new people. He could try to pretend to be charming, witty and funny to the strangers he was going to face today, but he knew he couldn't keep the act up for two years of college.

And so, Merlin turned up in his usual wear, clutching his folder and notepad on his arms, with a pen tucked behind his ear. His jeans dragged along the floor and scuffed at the bottom, and his bag shuffled on his left side where it rested, attacking his hipbone when he walked. After being assorted into a line and given his timetable and a map of the new, semi-modern college experience he was about to embark on, Merlin was all alone and had to find room...623 in five minutes.

That was a little more difficult than he expected. The building that room 623 was in was built on a slope - meaning you entered on the ground floor, but were actually on the third floor and had to go downstairs to ground level. It was mind boggling and Merlin walked round the corridors at least four times before he finally noticed the room. And, to his dismay, everyone had found it before him.

Merlin hated being the last to enter a room: everyone stared and looked at him like he was a freak. He quickly made his way to a free chair, having to budge past some people and nearly tripped over someone's bag, but he made it alive. The seat was in between two girls. One was a lovely mocha colour, her hazel eyes bright and alive, her hair done up in a neat bun, though the natural curls gave it so much more volume. She smiled at him as he came over and sent a knowing look to her friend on the other side of the empty chair. The other girl was flawless: her pale skin accentuated by long black curls and icy blue eyes. Said eyes were looking at him with an evil glint, and he almost considered darting out of the room.

However, Icy Blue seemed to catch his brainwave and she patted the seat between them as if to say "sit, now." Merlin was compelled and he plonked himself down with a meek "hello" to the girls and an even meeker "sorry" to the teacher, who then continued introducing her subject and lesson.

"So what brings you to Sociology?" Icy Blue asked as soon as the students were able to get on with work. He had to think for a while before he answered.

"It seemed interesting and was said to go well with psychology," he replied with a little smile. Mocha Curls was looking at him in amazement from the other side, her arm propping up her face. "I'm Merlin, by the way, from Helena Saint School." He figured introducing himself would help.

Icy Blue grinned and nodded her head. "I'm Morgana and this is Gwen here, and we're from Blackburn High in the next town. We've got a friend doing Psych too; you might have him in your class. I'm guessing you don't know anyone?" Merlin shook his head. Helena Saint had its own sixth form college and expected its students to go there, but Merlin unfortunately had to move and so Winterford Sixth Form College became the next best thing. Plus, it was closer and quite a respected college. He just felt like a fish out of water.

"You should hang around with us at lunch," Gwen piped up with a bright smile, her eyes grinning too. Merlin felt immediately comfortable around Gwen and his stiff back relaxed. Morgana nodded her head at the suggestion. "Let us have a look at your timetable."

They took his new timetable from him and worked out his subject choices - Sociology, Psychology, Physical Studies, Geology and English Literature - and compared it to their own. He found Gwen was also taking Geology, except they weren't together, and Morgana was doing English Literature and they did share that class. Merlin expected that she was very fluent in classical novels and it was a little unnerving. They both spoke of a friend they had who was also doing Physical Studies and was in the same class as him (this happened to be the same mate they mentioned earlier).

"You don't seem like the type that would do Physical Studies, Merlin. Are you taking it for all the fit girls or something?" Morgana teased, nudging him in the side. Merlin blushed and shook his head.

"Oh no, nothing like that- I'm hoping to learn the muscle systems and body functions side from physical studies. And I'm quite a good sport at badminton. Besides Morgana, you don't look like the type that would do Archaeology!" Gwen laughed at this and it was sweet and bubbly. Merlin smiled too.

Morgana shrugged and found herself laughing along. "What can I say, I like dinosaurs. Anyway Merlin, how about we come meet you outside your Psychology classroom and we'll eat lunch together, yeah?" Merlin agreed on that plan and waved them both goodbye as he headed to his psychology room, unfortunately in another building. He was able to find the room in time though, and picked himself out a desirable seat.

He didn't look at the people that slowly flowed into the room, but more on the notes he'd been given from the previous lesson and hadn't looked at as he'd been chatting with Morgana and Gwen. So he had a bit of a shock when someone plonked down in the chair next to him loudly, almost knocking him over. He was about to complain until he saw who it was.

This man was gorgeous. Bright blonde hair, firm biceps, strong jaw line with just the right amount of stubble and such beautiful blue eyes that were staring right at him. He turned away quickly and furiously focused on whatever the teacher was saying. But Merlin was also annoyed by this guy. He'd hit him when he sat down and so Merlin, under his breath, rudely said, "Thanks for the apology."

He took a quick glance at Mr. Blonde who looked absolutely shocked, and Merlin smiled a little. Who said there was anything wrong with making an impression? It didn't have to be a good one.

After the lesson, Merlin easily found Morgana and Gwen leaning against the wall outside. They smiled at him but didn't move when he got there. He was about to question it, but then Gwen's face suddenly lit up and she started waving at someone else from his class, calling them over. Then Merlin remembered they said they had a friend also doing Psychology, and he turned to see who it was. Merlin's face dropped.

Mr. Blonde made his way over, smiling at Morgana and Gwen but then his face faltered also when he saw Merlin. He came to Gwen's side ad she automatically linked her arms round him, plainly explaining their relationship.

"Hi guys," Mr. Blonde said, and the four of them started to walk. Morgana shoulder nudged Merlin and he just smiled awkwardly in return, glad he could walk next to her instead of next Mr. Blonde.

"Oh Arthur, this is Merlin," Morgana introduced them, waving her hands about between them and smiling, as if she wanted to clear the air Merlin hadn't even realised he'd created.

He was just about to wave his hand and say 'hi' when Arthur cut him off, saying "as if your name is Merlin!"

Gwen giggled and something in Merlin bubbled. Why was he being so rude? Merlin snorted and looked away from the two of them.

"I'm just gonna, y'know, do something," he said quickly and walked off from the trio, quick enough so neither of them could stop him. He didn't have the nerve to deal with Arthur and suddenly his college year looked like it was going to be a lot harder than he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Merlin thought that maybe, just maybe, he would be able to just avoid Morgana, Arthur and their never ending list of friends and just fall off of the radar somehow. The problem was, however, that the whole of their friendship group existed in all of his classes – Morgana in two, Gwen in one, Arthur in two and Leon, Gwaine and Lance all in one or another. It was inevitable that he'd bump into them all sooner or later.

Morgana was the one to catch him out, though. It was the start of their English Literature class and Merlin decided to turn up early and snatch a seat next to another early bird. That way, he only had one seat to defend against Morgana. He tried to make this available seat as appealing as possible to the next person who entered the room so they'd sit there. But, just Merlin's luck, the next person to enter the classroom was Morgana and she pounced on the seat quicker than he could shove his bag on it to stop her.

"Hello stranger," She teased. He gave her an awkward smile and she nudged his arm lightly, beaming from ear to ear, obviously proud of herself. Before Merlin to begin to utter some form of apology, Morgana cut him off and began to speak. "Look, Merlin, I know that Arthur is annoying, a prat and braun-headed. But you can't let him and his stupid remarks push you away from the rest of us. Trust me, Merlin, we all _adore _you, including Arthur but he won't ever admit it – and we want you to hang around with us. Just don't let him get to you, cause honestly, sooner or later he just needs a good old telling off and you'd probably do it."

Merlin hadn't even realised his problem was primarily with Arthur but before he could complain he just shut his mouth. She had a point, and he really wanted to hang around with them all. He blushed awkwardly. "Okay Morgana, I get it."

She smiled again and he realised how truly gorgeous she was. He wasn't the only one – most of the boys in the class were already drooling in her direction and he couldn't blame them. She was a raven-haired beauty. "So hang around with us at lunch, yeah? We'll walk together after this class," Morgana told him, she didn't ask. But Merlin was glad she didn't.

They fell into easy conversation and Merlin could tell that Morgana was going to be a rock for him. She was definitely the one he wanted closest. Merlin nudged her in the shoulder mid-way through the lesson and whispered, "Do you always get a fan club wherever you go?" He was pointing out the boys looking her way.

She took it all into her stride and whipped her hair dramatically. "I don't notice, but now I've got you to make them all jealous," She said with a wink, and Merlin cracked up with laughter, drawing attention and glares from the male population of the class and their teacher. He made a small apology under his blushing cheeks and they fell into easy banter.

When the end of the lesson came, they walked out together and as soon as they were in the corridor Morgana linked her arm with Merlin's, holding tight and swinging them side to side. Although she didn't say, Merlin suspected it was to prevent him from running away again – she had that sort of glint in her eye. On the way to wherever her friends hung out, Morgana began to explain their friendship group.

They called themselves "The Legend" – based on all of their names and just a reasonably cool name – which consisted of Arthur, the arrogant prat; Morgana, the femme fatale; Gwen, the cute, shy one; Lance, the kind-hearted guy; Gwaine, the party-making home-wrecker; and Leon, the ladies' man. She also explained that Leon's latest 'thing' will probably be there too. They'd been friends since the start of high school with the exception of Leon who had joined when they started college. Morgana insisted that he was going to fit right in and Merlin wasn't at all sure. He wasn't good around big groups of people.

They arrived at the "hang out" spot: the benches on the courtyard balcony, between the two buildings. Lance and Gwaine were already there taking up one bench – Lance had his guitar out and was strumming a few notes, and Gwaine was just finishing his food. When he saw the two of them coming over, he stood up and Lance moved over to let Merlin sit in the middle. Gwaine made a show of offering his seat to Morgana and taking a spot sitting on the pavement instead, placing her feet in his lap and massaging them through her shoes. It was quite funny and Merlin turned to Lance for an explanation. He laughed heartily.

"Basically, Gwaine really, really wants to shag Morgana, but she's been playing hard to get for ages and it's just fun banter for the both of them. It might happen one day, it just depends," He didn't even bother to whisper it, because obviously this display of affection was normal place in their group. "The others are just getting food; they'll be here in a bit."

Merlin fell into easy conversation with Morgana and Lance, and he kept asking Lance to play songs. Gwaine was joining in too, piping in with jokes and anecdotes that had Merlin in stitches. He didn't notice when Arthur, Gwen, Leon and a girl he didn't recognise turned up.

"Hey everyone," Arthur greeted, sitting himself down on the adjacent bench. As soon as he sat down, Gwen snuggled into his side and did a cute little wave. Merlin waved back. Leon sat on the floor and also said hello, and he introduced his girlfriend Vivian to them all. She was pale-skinned with white blonde hair and a sneer to her lips. But nevertheless she was pretty, and Merlin guessed that was all that mattered to Leon.

Although there was no proper apology between the two of them, Merlin found that Arthur wasn't hostile to him, he was just polite and sincere. Maybe Gwen or Morgana had spoken to him or something. He felt like a little, orphaned kitten that they were all taking turns in looking after. One thing Merlin did notice, though, was the closeness between Gwen and Lance. Even though she was snuggled up in Arthur's arm, she was chatting away to Lance, asking him to play this, play that, gushing about how good he was on guitar. Arthur didn't seem to notice, or, if he did, he was just used to it.

It was time for lesson and Merlin had a free period. Just before he went to find the library and crack on with some homework, Morgana grabbed hold of his arm and said, "Hey, you gonna come to the movie night tomorrow?"

The monthly movie night that the "Legend" hosted was at a different house each time. This month, it was Arthur's and Morgana insisted on driving him over (she loved to talk about how she'd passed her driving test before anyone else). She picked him up late and said that he had to say over, because that's what they did. Gwaine and Lance were also in the car and were making jokes already. Merlin loved these two guys already.

It didn't take long for Merlin to realise that "movie night" was just a massive code word for "piss up". Within half an hour Gwaine was already tipsy, Gwen was giggling so loud he couldn't hear anyone else and the rest of them were feeling warm and bubbly – and he hadn't watched one second of a movie.

Leon and Vivian were lounging on the carpet, his tongue sufficiently down her throat enough that it looked like she could choke on it. Arthur was blabbering on about something that happened in one of his classes to Gwaine and Morgana, who had the courtesy to listen but they were really more interested in one another – and Gwen and sitting practically on Lance's lap, whispering stuff in his ear. Lance was blushing and it was positively adorable, but Merlin wondered if Arthur had noticed.

"Want another drink?" Arthur appeared at his side and asked promptly, and although Merlin didn't drink he said yes and followed him into the kitchen. Instead of going back to the lounge once they had their drinks, Arthur turned to him and pointed to the patio. "Wanna come outside for a bit? I'm feeling a little too hot."

Once again Merlin agreed and he found himself outside with Arthur in the cold, nightly breeze. It was relaxing and he leaned against the glass door, a little smile on his face. Arthur looked deep in thought as he frequently knocked back some more drink. "Are you alright?" Merlin asked cautiously.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good, why'd you ask?" Arthur drawled, his eyes now focused on him. Merlin shivered involuntarily from the strong gaze.

"I was just wondering… 'cause I mean, your girlfriend isn't here with you," He mumbled, scared that he might've maybe struck a nerve. Arthur looked at him for a good old time before he finally answered, obviously debating with himself whether or not he should tell Merlin. Merlin tried for a little smile to make himself look more trustworthy.

"Don't get me wrong, Gwen is a lovely girl. Sweet, funny, cute, she's just so precious and we've had good times. But, isn't it obvious? Fuck, everyone knows that Gwen and Lance are bloody made for each other, and I'm not even standing in their way," Arthur explained, sitting down on the cold concrete patio, "If we walked back in now and they were kissing, I wouldn't be angry. Well, I would to make it look like I'm upset, but really, I'm just waiting for them to get their act together and make out already so I don't have to keep pretending."

Merlin sat down also, a little confused. "Pretending? You don't need to pretend; can't you just break up with her? What's there to lose if you want them to be together?"

Arthur laughed. "I don't like being alone. If Gwen and I break up – fuck, this sounds selfish – if we break up, then I'm alone and she's happy and it's good that she's happy but I need to be with someone. The only time I'll break up with Gwen is when I know there's someone else I can turn to instead."

Merlin found this all a bit strange. He had tons of friends and he felt lonely? What was wrong with this guy? "But you've got us, isn't that enough to make you feel welcome and not alone? It doesn't have to be a relationship does it?"

"Well fucking yeah it does, I need a relationship, I real one, not a floozy one. One where I don't have to hide anymore and one where I'm not lonely." Now Merlin was even more confused.

"Hide from what? Hide what? I don't get it?"

Arthur suddenly stopped himself from speaking again and he looked at Merlin dangerously. "The only person that knows this is Gwen, okay? I am telling you and I don't even fucking know why 'cause I've only just met you but, fuck, I'm gay. I have been since I realised a couple of years ago and I've got to have a relationship to cover that up. I'm known as _the_ man, and if I'm gay then… shit."

He stood up extremely quickly, spilling drink over himself but that was the least of his worries. "I'm just, er, I'm going to go get changed alright?" And just like that, Arthur disappeared and Merlin wasn't exactly speechless, but he was surprised. Merlin didn't realise people were still so stigmatised towards homosexuality, he thought that college was going to be open minded and happy and rainbows and – wait, Arthur was gay? It infuriated him that being gay was a problem for him.

Merlin now knew there was like, 20 other sides to Arthur and it was going to take a while to learn them all.


	3. Chapter 3

Although Merlin was expecting it to be awkward, Arthur apparently "couldn't recall" their patio conversation or at least he acted like he couldn't. Merlin was pretty sure that he'd remember telling his secret to a friend who's only had for a week. But if he was going to act oblivious, then so would Merlin.

It was an early morning Geology lesson and Merlin could not stop yawning. The teacher was getting pretty pissed off with him and Lance kept elbowing him to keep him awake. But he just couldn't help it. At the end of the lesson, Lance and Merlin both shared a free period and so they walked to the courtyard and hung out there for the spare hour.

"What's up Merlin? You're either awfully tired or something's bugging you," Lance said, worried. He was only caring for his friend and Merlin appreciated that, except that he couldn't exactly tell him why he was so tired. He'd been kept up fretting about Arthur's fear of admitting being gay. And although Merlin didn't know for sure, he was confused about his own sexuality and had never been attracted to girls in his old school. Merlin and others had suspected him of being gay and he'd just got used to the idea of waiting until he was sexually attracted to someone.

"Merlin, I've lost you again," Lance poked him, reminding him that yes, he was in college and Lance had asked him a question.

"Sorry," Merlin mumbled apologetically and shrugged his shoulders. "It's just, like, what do you do if you aren't being true to yourself or open, or if you feel like people will think of you differently when you let them know the real you?"

Merlin figured that probably made a lot more sense in his head than out loud and he sighed. "Sorry, I must be really confusing you now. Basically, Lance, I think I might be gay and I'm not scared of how people will react but I just really want to know what will happen if I just stood up right now, or if anyone just stood up right now and went 'guess what, I'm gay!' ?"

Unfortunately for Merlin, as he explained this to Lance, a certain blonde-haired beauty walked past them and heard every single detail. Although it didn't bother him then, Merlin would later regret even opening his mouth - even though Lance was extremely supportive of the point he was trying to get across.

"I think people have grown up a bit more now Merlin. College is different to school, people can be themselves here. I mean, have you seen any bullying here? It just doesn't happen 'cause no one cares," Lance explained supportively, patting Merlin on the back. "So, who's the lucky fella you've got your eyes on?"

Merlin laughed and blushed. "I didn't say I _was_ gay, Lance! I just… I'm not sure, or like, I was being hypothetical."

Lance smiled and nudged his arm. "Well, if you do ever feel like you like someone, you can always confide in me." Merlin nudged him back and laughed – he already knew that Lance would always be there for him. But that wasn't the point.

Why couldn't Arthur believe that everyone would be there for him?

* * *

><p>Lunch hour came around and Merlin had just finished his Sociology lesson with Morgana and Gwen. They were all in a deep discussion about the family state in society right until they sat down. As they did, Gwen gravitated over to Arthur and Lance, sitting between them both. Merlin stayed with Morgana and they took the adjacent bench. When Gwaine and Leon turned up with Vivian, Gwaine took the other side to Morgana and Leon and Vivian sat on the floor. And for the first real time ever, Merlin noticed that Vivian was sneering in his direction.<p>

She stared his way for a while and then turned to Leon, whispering in his ear. Merlin figured it was probably a personal thing and was going to turn away, but then Leon looked at him with a strange expression. It was like Merlin was the dirt on Leon's shoe and he didn't want him there. Merlin told himself that he was probably looking too much into this and had made it all up, so he turned back to Gwaine and Morgana and thought nothing of it.

Though when Merlin walked in Physical Studies class later that day, he couldn't even say a word before Leon pushed him harshly by his shoulders, knocking Merlin to the floor. Pain surged through Merlin's elbow and back.

"I suggest you stop spreading around bullshit about people Merlin. It's not the way you get friends around here," And then Leon spat at him, turned around and walked to a seat the other side of the classroom. Merlin was left to pick himself up and hobble over to a seat elsewhere.

So when Arthur walked in, Leon called him over straight away, even though Merlin saw in Arthur's eyes that he considered sitting with him. Arthur barely sat down before Leon had filled him in on what had happened.

Although Merlin himself wasn't really sure what he'd done wrong, he guessed someone had thought he'd been saying stuff about Arthur, because when Arthur looked at him it was with an expression of pure hatred and betrayal.

For the rest of the lesson and the day, Arthur didn't speak to or even look at him once. Merlin was going to have to do something to find out what had been said and who had said it, because he knew by tomorrow morning it was going to be everyone's business.

Since when was college so complicated?


	4. Chapter 4

In the evening Merlin spent most of his time beating himself up and looking at his new ward wounds. He just couldn't work out why Leon had just lashed out to him about 'saying bullshit about people'. The only thing he'd said was about himself, not anyone else. Someone must have gotten the wrong idea.

He sat on his bed and turned on his laptop. Whilst he waited for it to load, he thought about whom he'd spoken to that day. Lance, mainly, was his conclusion. But would Lance tell lies, say he was talking about other people? He hoped Lance wasn't that sort of person, and just suspecting him of being like that made Merlin feel bad. No, it couldn't be Lance who'd done this.

His laptop made its little Windows sound and he immediately went online and logged on to Facebook. He daren't look at Leon's or Arthur's profiles or anyone in his Physical Studies class for that matter. Instead, he went straight to chat and found Lance's name.

He opened up a little chat dialogue and said, "hey lance, do you know what happened in phys studies today?"

It wasn't long before he got a reply of, "no man, whats up? whats happened?"

If it was Lance who had caused this, he was being a good liar about it. "leon came and hit me, said i was speaking bullshit about his friends? lance i'm so confused right now"

"that's weird though," Lance immediately typed back, "we havent seen leon all day & youve been with me mostly & and what viv said earlier was weird too"

Now Merlin was interested. He didn't have Vivian as a friend and couldn't see her status. "what did she say? i'm not friends with her"

Lance copied and pasted it. It said: "I love those who think they can come in and ruin everyone's friendship groups. I mean, what has he ever done to you?"

"i dont get it," Merlin replied and frowned, trying to read into it. He had the nagging feeling in his stomach telling him the status was about him, but he couldn't understand why. He's never spoken a word to Vivian – to be fair; he's never had the chance: she's always been sucking Leon's face to care much about anyone else.

"maybe someone said something to her, shes got art class with gwen, you could ask?" Lance typed back, he seemed just as confused as Merlin. "i think its about you?"

Merlin rolled his eyes. "well yeah i worked that one out," he repled, opening a new chat dialog with Gwen who was, thankfully, online. "hey gwen, do you know if vivian said anything about me today?"

Gwen didn't reply for a couple of minutes and when she did it was a bloody paragraph of text. "yeah she did actually, she said she heard you today talking about someone being gay & she was going on about how you cant just waltz in & cause shit between everyone. she then said that Arthur has to hear about it & asked me to tell him that you'd been spreading shit about him but I didn't tell Arthur. i said i wouldnt."

Merlin sighed and used his palm to wipe his face. This was interesting. Why were girls so bitchy? He typed back quickly before Gwen started ranting again. "and then she told Leon & he beat me up in phys class today."

"no way merlin! are you okay? Are you in hospital? did arthur see it?"

"no he didnt but leon told him all about it & so arthurs not speaking to me," Merlin figured he had the basic gist of the situation now: basically, Vivian was a bitch, she thought he'd been talking about Arthur and then decided to spread it around to everyone.

"vivian thought i was talking about Arthur earlier, thats what this is," Merlin sent to Lance and awaited a reply. "she mustve overheard us as she walked past."

"damn," Lance typed back. He didn't type anything else and Merlin thought it would've been really useful if he was able to come up with an idea right now. "have you spoken to arthur about it?"

"um, no? hes not speaking to me," Merlin replied back, ready to hit his head on his laptop keyboard. This was all too bitchy and silly and he just wanted to be in a comfortable friendship group. "i could get gwen to speak to him though?"

"no," Lance typed back quickly, and Merlin raised an eyebrow. "you should say it to Morgana, shes got more of a power over arthur. he'll listen to her."

Merlin decided to take this advice and sent Morgana a text, as she wasn't online at that moment. He explained the whole situation to her and she replied with a "fuck, lemme deal with this xxx"

He was surprised, but glad that he'd managed to make a real good connection with Morgana as a friend. At least she was able to understand everything for him. She could be there for him. Just like Lance was. But he knew Lance wasn't being true to himself, neither was Arthur, heck, probably neither was Vivian or Gwen or anyone. Everyone had secrets.

In a brave move, Merlin decided to add Vivian on Facebook. Within a couple of moments she accepted and had sent him a message.

"youve got a nerve," It said and Merlin felt the iciness of the words go through him. He really, really did not like this girl.

"excuse me? youre the one spreading lies around here," Merlin sent back with a strange wave of confidence. She angered him, and that made him act before he thought. Fuck being a peace bringer in this situation!

"i am not! you shouldnt be chatting behind peoples backs."

"and neither should you! do you even know what i was talking about when you overheard me?" It took her a while to reply, and Merlin thought he'd won in a childish sort of way. She did eventually type back and he braced himself for what he was going to read.

"it was obviously about arthur, you just want him to be gay so you can get your claws on him." Ouch, Merlin thought. Though it was quite a humorous picture – like Merlin would ever want a piece of Arthur, even if he did know his secret and kind of liked the way Arthur's eyes had a sparkle in the dark and were extremely blue-

"it wasnt about arthur, actually. if you really must know, i was talking about myself, 'cause im most likely probably gay, alright? now you can stop spreading around the wrong thing and we can all get on with our lives."

Soon after this comment, Vivian signed offline. Merlin figured he'd had enough drama for one night and did the same, though he began to wonder what Vivian would do with this new bout of information. Knowing what she did with other little things she heard or thought she heard, Merlin reckoned he probably had to prepare himself for the backfire tomorrow morning at college.

His fears of being out and gay at college were definitely going to be challenged tomorrow. Before he went to bed, he received another text from Morgana that had a contact attached with it. "Spoke to Arthur, he gets it. He wanted your number so I sent it to him and if he does send you anything, this is his so you know in advance xxx"

Well, that was interesting.


	5. Chapter 5

In the morning Merlin was woken up by a text. His groggy eyes didn't register who it was from at first as he struggled to get himself out of bed. It was a Friday, which meant he didn't have to be in college so early – Arthur, Lance and Merlin all has this free period off and Merlin usually met Lance in town. But Friday also meant the Legend's weekly club crawl in the evening, and tonight would be his first one and he wasn't at all sure if he wanted to go or not. He wasn't much of a drinker anyway and going out was most likely going to lead to him breaking some seriously strong morals.

He'd been holding his phone but not really reading his text for about five minutes. Deciding he was now awake, Merlin sat up and read the text aloud.

"Hey Merlin, I'll pick you up at 10 and we can go in together?" Merlin frowned, replying with an "okay, thanks." It was weird though – Lance didn't know how to drive yet, so it wasn't him who'd sent the text. Only Morgana and Arthur could drive and he knew it wasn't her because Morgana always left kisses and she started at 9am today, so it must've been – wait, what? Arthur had texted him? Arthur was going to pick him up? Woah, okay, Merlin needed to get ready.

He managed his way out of bed and into the shower. When he was finished, Merlin got out and wiped the condensation from the mirror. He removed the sleep out of his eyes and looked at his reflection, and that was when he noticed the thick, purple bruise on his collarbone and down his right side – from when Leon had pushed him yesterday. Jesus, Merlin thought, cursing his weedy body from bruising so easily.

Although it was sunny out, he decided on a grey jumper to cover the bruising near his neck. So by the time Arthur turned up, Merlin was dressed, fed and smiling awkwardly, sat on his own doorstep. He watched the silver Corsa park out front and Arthur rolled down the window, looking up to Merlin's house and noticing the lanky lad already. The awkward smile was returned and Merlin made his way down to sit in the front of the car.

He noticed that Arthur hadn't picked up Lance on the way, and that he was alone in his car. No music, no passengers, nothing. Merlin made himself comfortable and looked over to Arthur in the driver's seat with a – hopefully – content expression, when really inside he was nervous, worried, and awkward.

"You alright?" Arthur asks, but Merlin asks at the same time and so they both try to laugh it off. Arthur's shadowed blue eyes keep staring at him, and Arthur nods to tell Merlin to speak first.

"Uh, yeah, I guess I'm alright. A bit bruised from yesterday though." Immediately something in Arthur's eyes changed, a quick flash of dark anger, before they subdued to blue again. He cleared his throat and waited a couple of moments before asking:

"Do you mind if I see how bad it is?"

Merlin looked down at his grey jumper and slowly lifted down the neck, so that it showed the purple marks on his collarbone. He heard Arthur make a wincing intake of breath and Merlin laughed. "Yeah, yeah I know, it looks worse than it is."

"I can't believe he did that to you. Like, I know he thought he was sticking up for me and everything but it was a stupidly angry, homophobic way of doing it. Y'see why I don't really know what to do?" Arthur went off on a tangent and yeah, Merlin understood him. He saw that his best mate was angered at thinking of Arthur being gay, he saw that violence was an option and it made everything about the day to come a little bit scarier.

"Yeah, well, I'm guessing you haven't heard yet then? That I outed myself last night?" Merlin mumbled, looking through the windscreen instead of at Arthur. He heard him murmur a sound of agreement.

"Vivian's mouth runs a mile a minute. She's a bitch and, well, you're just going to have to get used to it." Arthur started tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, as if he was contemplating what to do or say next. Instead of speaking again, he turned the car engine on and started to drive towards college.

Merlin was tense: he'd been expecting that particular moment to last longer, to become something more, or for something to happen. But instead, they were back to being college students on their way to college. It kind of disheartened him, but then he reminded himself that - _hello, you and Arthur will never happen, stop being delusional _– things should stay mutual and platonic. He glanced over at Arthur and found himself smiling at the frown lines of concentration on his forehead, how his hair seemed to stay golden even when no light shined on it, and how he stuck his tongue out a little whenever they came to roundabouts.

"Merlin, you're a bit quiet," Arthur murmured, snapping the boy out of his daze. He shrugged and laughed a little, looking out the window his side, considering that to be the safe option.

"I'm just worried about everyone, if they'll treat me differently 'cause of everything," He said tentatively, knowing the situation was all too close to home for Arthur but to be fair, Arthur wasn't the one going through it. It was Merlin who'd been stupid enough to tell the biggest bitch of the year the awkward, kind of true truth and now everyone was going to know.

Arthur laughed heartily and it brought Merlin back to life and to his surroundings – Arthur's car, approximately five minutes away from college and still stupidly early. "C'mon Merlin, everyone loves you. Knowing something more about you is just going to make them love you more. How about we pull over for a bit, we've not got college for another half hour yet."

Merlin agreed with his suggestion and they parked up alongside a country lane on the outskirts of Winterford town. Merlin got out first, stretching his gangly legs and darting through a hedgerow so he could explore the field behind. Arthur closely followed and they found a patch of soft, mowed down crop that would take the size of both of them. Luckily, it was sunny and the sky was blue. Merlin felt at ease out here in the countryside. It reminded him of home, with his mother and the little village community that he wasn't a part of anymore.

Something struck Merlin, and he glanced over to Arthur who had his eyes closed beneath some tinted shades. He furrowed his eyebrows, cleared his throat for what he was going to say. "Why is everything so hard for you, but for me everything's fine? Arthur, you could easily come out and stop pretending and no one would care, if you say it's gonna be that easy with me then why can't it be with you?"

Arthur looked extremely composed for someone who was going to blow his top. He gritted his teeth and his jaw strengthened visibly, which Merlin shivered at (as it meant he was finally looking at Arthur's jawbone again in a way which wasn't platonic). He turned to look at Merlin and heaved a big sigh, obviously taking in the boy's deer in headlights look and throwing all of the anger he had out into the breeze.

"I don't know, Merlin. I just – I'm scared, like you are, right now. And, everyone's just so used to me being me, straight strong Arthur, the prince, the ladies' man. It's hard for me."

"What, 'cause you're going to ruin some little reputation of yours?" Yes, Merlin knew he was throwing fuel directly at the fire, and that he was going to get burned. But there was something about this pure, raw emotion in Arthur that Merlin desired to see, knowing that no one else had probably experienced it before. He saw a flash of it in Arthur's jawline, and they both stood up, feeling that this wasn't comfortable any more.

"Fuck you Merlin. Not all of us can just bound in, come out and expect it to be all rainbows and flowers. It would be betraying my mates if I came out, that I'd hid that from them for so long, that's just unfair."

"Then maybe you should've been open and honest with them to start off with." Merlin spat back, folding his arms and holding Arthur's stare. The bigger, stronger man faltered and Arthur looked away, taking his glasses off. Merlin didn't know why, until he noticed that Arthur was rubbing his eyes, holding them shut to stop the tears from flowing. "Shit, Arthur, I'm sorry."

Arthur shook his head and refused to look at Merlin. Although it was risky, Merlin decided to come closer and offer some sympathy. He placed his hand tenderly on Arthur's shoulder and rubbed through the blonde's shirt against the skin. Arthur finally looked at Merlin, his eyes bloodshot, teary and amazingly blue. Merlin was stunned by them and couldn't help but stare, like he was frozen in place. He didn't even notice Arthur's eyes flick to look at Merlin's lips and back.

But he definitely noticed when Arthur kissed him. Eyes wide open, Merlin panicked, even if this felt stupidly right and Arthur had done it, not him. Merlin tried to pull away but Arthur had put his arm around his waist and forced him back into the embrace, this time his lips crushing against Arthur's. They both moaned and then suddenly everything changed. It seemed to work then, and they continued to kiss, for longer, moving their lips in sync and daring to use their tongues as well. Instead of being stoic, frozen and straight, Merlin melted into the blonde's arms and his hands found their place around his neck, wringing together in his hair.

It seemed like an eternity had passed when they finished kissing, and they both pulled away with flushed cheeks and dark, shaking eyes.

"Oh my God," Merlin panicked, pulling away from Arthur and turning his back on him. "What did we just do?"

"I-I don't know, Merlin, I'm sorry," Arthur croaked out, looking as nervous and scared as Merlin was, but he composed himself when the boy faced him again. "We should get to college."

Merlin was stunned, and when he snapped out of it he nodded his head. "Yeah, shit, yeah, let's go."

And just as easily as that they were in the car again, surrounded by awkward silence and no music coming out of the stereo. Arthur murmured that it was broken, but Merlin really didn't care. He more cared about the fact now that not only did he have to survive as out and gay, but also with a massive crush on his "I'm-totally-straight-but-actually-gay" friend and his _girlfriend_ in his classes. Oh, shit.


	6. Chapter 6

As soon as Arthur dropped them off at college, Merlin wanted to run away and hide in a corner, or under a rock. Just so he didn't have to see anyone, or hang around with Arthur alone. He didn't know what was worse.

He tried to think of someone he'd actually want to be around today. Normally, he loved Lance's company and would always be with him, but he was too closely connected with Gwen who was too closely connected with Arthur. He couldn't confide in Lance about Arthur, and he definitely couldn't say anything to Gwen. ("Oh, hi Gwen, did you know your boyfriend's gay and made out with me this morning?" Yeah, no.) Arthur for company was out of the question – that would just lead to potential embarrassment, awkwardness and more things that shouldn't happen. Ever.

That left Leon and Vivien who, let's face it, were like his secret arch enemies at the moment. Sure, Leon might've tried to apologise to him after the lesson where he'd knocked him to the ground but it was still unfair and a sore spot in Merlin's mind, not to mention on Merlin's body. Just thinking about the bruising made him grimace and he lifted his grey jumper up just a teency bit to look at it once again.

Then Merlin remembered, the girl who would always save him. Morgana. Immediately, Merlin was at the courtyard seats – luckily no one from the Legend had turned up yet – and had his phone out texting the black raven. It was literally, like, ten seconds before his eyes were covered and someone whispered "guess who?" in his ear, in their silky, sultry voice. Merlin loved Morgana's voice and, if he wasn't now definitely for certain gay, Merlin could easily see himself being a second Gwaine.

"Hey Morgana, I just texted you," Merlin beamed, and her phone decided to point that out by making a little beep. Morgana smiled and sat down beside him.

"I just got your text," Morgana replied sweetly and rested her head on his shoulder. "Oh, how are you sweetie? Haven't had any reactions yet?"

Merlin smiled and was ready to spew his secrets open to her, lay them out on a plate, when Gwaine decided to turn up and sit down in his usual spot on the ground below Morgana's feet. "Hey Gwaine," Merlin said cheerily and the tanned bloke returned his greeting. "And no, luckily yet Morgana, I haven't had any lessons."

"Ah alright," Morgana nodded her head and placed her hand on Gwaine's shoulder. "You okay hon?" She asked him, and Merlin nearly laughed at Gwaine's puppy eyed return.

"I'm okay my love, now that you are before me," Gwaine replied lovingly but couldn't contain his laughter.

"Oh God, it's too sappy, I'm gonna throw up," Merlin said through giggles, and Gwaine punched his leg half-heartedly.

The three of them continued to chat and banter, discussing silly little things like tadpoles and what drink they would make Vivien suffer tonight if she comes. Merlin felt a little uneasy when her name was mentioned and he looked up and realised Leon had turned up without a blonde haired bitch on his arm. He looked a little shaken up but a lot less weighed-down, which was weird. Shortly after him arrived Lance, Gwen and Arthur – Gwen and Arthur were holding hands but Gwen was speaking to Lance. Arthur's mind seemed to be elsewhere, but he snapped out of it when he saw Merlin and gave the boy a secret smile, before looking away.

Merlin's breath caught in his throat and so many things happened at once. Arthur had just _smiled_ at him, like in the way that secret lovers do – Oh God; Leon had came to sit beside Merlin and not where he usually sat, scaring the crap out of him. And before poor Merlin could even react, Morgana said bitterly "You've got a nerve."

Leon visibly flinched and looked down at his feet. "Merlin, I want to apologise. What I did yesterday was stupidly wrong and homophobic of me; I hope you're not really badly hurt. I spoke to Vivian this morning and I've broken up with her, for what she did to you. She was bad news anyway. But I hope she doesn't give you any trouble."

Everyone had fallen silent for Leon's words, and they were all looking at Merlin wondering what he was going to say in return. Instead of arguing, Merlin smiled brightly and touched Leon's shoulder. "Thanks, Leon. I understand. And I forgive you. Though you did proper bruise me, I'm only a weakling."

Leon smiled back and nodded. "Sorry Merlin, I didn't realise my own strength."

Suddenly, everything was well again and everyone had fallen into easy conversation. Leon had started a thumb war with Gwaine that Morgana umpired, and Merlin took the moment to look at Arthur was an "I told you so" sort of look. He'd just witnessed his best friend Leon completely accept Merlin for everything – for being gay, for _everything._ Arthur caught his eye and looked like he wanted to say something secretly back, but Gwen started speaking to him and they broke their moment.

Lance sat down next to Merlin and put his arm round him. "How comes you didn't meet me this morning mate?" He accused, though it was jokingly, but Merlin still felt awfully guilty.

"Sorry Lance, I would've but Arthur picked me up this morning, I should've texted you." Lance laughed at him and shook his head.

"Mate, it's cool, I'm not angry with you. How about we all start going in together at the same time? Would make more sense."

"Sounds like an idea, Lance," Merlin beamed. The time for lesson arrived and Merlin attached himself to Morgana, as they both had English Literature. This also meant that if Merlin really wanted to, he could speak to Morgana about everything and get it all off his chest – the text from Arthur, the drive to college, the _kiss_. Oh God, it was all too much, it had only happened an hour ago and it was all Merlin could think about. All he could think about was Arthur.

When Morgana and Merlin sat down in their lesson, Merlin noticed that no one even looked his direction. He didn't get any weird looks, or any remarks, anything. No one cared that he was gay, that he was out and gay. It just didn't faze anyone. (And the boys that looked jealously at him for being in Morgana's presence still did so.)

As soon as they were allowed to communicate with one another, Morgana turned herself round and looked straight at Merlin. "Right, what happened. You're telling me everything. The texts from Arthur, him taking you to college this morning, and the conversation you guys had at the last movie night." Merlin looked shocked, how did she know about that? He stayed tight lipped though, and Morgana sighed. "Merlin, you've been in a daze the whole of this morning, and you're no longer trying to avoid Arthur, you two are actually _looking _at each other. I swear on my life that this information will be confidential between us, okay?"

Merlin shook his head and smiled. "Morgana, we just settled our differences. At the movie night, Arthur was drunk and moaning about how much he liked Gwen. He just needed to ramble, it was no big deal. And this morning, Arthur was looking out for me. He wanted to make sure I was okay. And now we're cool, we're friends, it's all good." Merlin was somewhat proud of himself – those lies had come out stupidly easily, and if he really wanted to he could convince himself that was the truth, too.

Morgana was satisfied with his answer and smiled brightly. "Good, I don't want any hard feelings in our Legend. Now that Vivian's gone – thank _fuck_ – we can all have a real good time tonight, yeah?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Are you going to pick me up and take me?"

"Of course babe," Morgana replied sweetly and held his hand tight. "We are going to look _fabulous_ tonight; all of the guys won't be able to take their eyes off of us."

Merlin was in absolute stitches. Something told him that Morgana had been longing for a gay friend just so that she could say that, and now she had, she was laughing just as much. Their strict, humourless English Literature teacher wasn't impressed, though.

"Morgana, I'm not going to be walking around in pin stilettos, okay? Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I'm a flaming homosexual!" Morgana had to stifle her giggles otherwise their teacher was going to split them up.

"Okay, okay, I get you. But I'm coming round and making sure you wear a real tight tee shirt, you deserve to have a sexy boyfriend, Merlin. Got your eyes on anyone?" Morgana teased, nudging him in the side – luckily it was the healthy side. But Merlin's mind had gone AWOL – did he have anyone in mind? Shit. A certain sexy, strong, rugby playing blonde was in his inner eye, with his tongue in Merlin's mouth, his arm around Merlin's hip. Oh, oh no.

"Merlin?" Morgana asked, noticing that Merlin had officially vacated his own brain. "Merlin? Babe, are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I-I just, remember this guy that walked past me this morning who looked quite nice. But I doubt he's gay." Geez, these lies were just rolling off of his tongue today. Morgana's eyes lit up and Merlin knew she was going to ask what he looked like, if she knew him, and he stopped her before she could run away with the idea.

"Pick me up at 8, yeah?"


	7. Chapter 7

The rest of the day ran really smoothly. He dii have one run in with a boy in his Psychology class who tried to claim that Merlin was 'eyeing him up'. (He wasn't even that good looking.) But the boy quickly shut himself up when Gwaine, and even Arthur stood up for him. Merlin felt like a damsel in distress but Gwaine had just laughed it all off and entertained him with anecdotes about previous Friday nights where Arthur had danced on table tops and stripped himself naked in front of everyone. Arthur blushed but played it off by countering the embarrassing Arthur moments with embarrassing Gwaine moments, which apparently happened quite a lot.

At the end of Psychology class, Arthur pulled him to one side and offered to pick him up tonight. Merlin explained that Morgana was already doing that and the poor blonde looked really disheartened for a moment. Merlin nearly felt guilty.

"How about I take you home, then? We could order some food and have a little pre-drink and then both go with Morgana?" Although it seemed like a really risky idea, Merlin agreed and was glad he did – the smile Arthur gave him was bright, shining and just plain gorgeous. Merlin felt like if he could receive that smile every time he said yes to Arthur, he was going to be accepting every single offer with no questions asked.

He was very much aware now that he was attracted to Arthur. Arthur was irresistible – his eyes were bright, seemed to dance in the light and almost gave Merlin butterflies. Okay, they turned Merlin into a fucking butterfly house. Ever since their kiss that morning, Arthur was all Merlin had been thinking about. In fact, Merlin suspected he'd been head over heels for Arthur much earlier than that. Maybe even when Arthur had said "as if your name's Merlin!" to him.

It was bad, he knew it was bad. But he couldn't help it, especially when Arthur was asking to spend time with him, instead of _his own girlfriend_! Merlin almost felt bad for Gwen, until he realised that Gwen had the equally gorgeous Lance after her affections. If Merlin hadn't quickly distinguished his type was blondes (but only those that were called Arthur and kissed him in crop fields), Merlin could have easily seen himself falling for Lance, or even Gwaine if the bloke wasn't so heavily invested in Morgana.

Part of Merlin wished that his remaining lessons, Geology with Lance and Sociology with Morgana and Gwen, would go really slowly so he wouldn't have to get in the car with Arthur again. But another part of him was longing for a repeat of this morning, and that part was winning the battle in his subconscious. In Sociology, Gwen mentioned that her and Lance were going to drive home with Morgana and then Merlin didn't feel as bad for getting a lift with her boyfriend. He didn't mention it, though. And when Morgana offered him a lift too he politely declined, saying he had to visit the library after college.

When the end of the lesson arrived, Merlin hung behind for a good five minutes before walking to the car park to meet Arthur.

"Took your time," Arthur joked, grinning at Merlin when he sat in the passenger seat and apologised for being late. "It's cool Merlin, no worries."

Merlin couldn't deny that it was awkward between them. Arthur hadn't started driving yet because he was looking for something in the glove box, reaching over Merlin and rustling about. Merlin held his breath the whole time, because it meant Arthur's head was hovering awfully close to Merlin's body and he could smell Arthur's shampoo, blended with his cologne. The smell was intoxicating. In fact, Merlin even noticed the knots in Arthur's hair from where someone had ran their fingers through it. That _totally wasn't him_ this morning.

Merlin was blushing furiously and when Arthur returned to his seat – with a fucking _ipod lead, that's what he'd been looking for!_ – Merlin's mind was sufficiently head first in Hell. Arthur looked at him strangely and then realised the blush that Merlin's face, ears and neck were splattered with.

"Hey, Merlin," Arthur spoke softly, dangerously softly, like liquid sex was coming out of his mouth. Although Merlin willed himself to stay looking down, he couldn't help what happened next. His blue, shining eyes connected with Arthur's equally blue ones and they launched themselves at each other, grabbing hair, necks, any hot skin they could reach just so their lips could collide together. And it was fucking gorgeous, the collision. All hot breaths, dark moans and teeth and tongues and saliva.

The only time they broke apart was when they realised they were still in the college car park, so they left each other alone for an excruciating ten minutes whilst Arthur drove to Merlin's house.

When they arrived, it was locked meaning Merlin's house was empty, and that meant it was just Arthur and himself. He unlocked the door with nervous hands and opened it for the both of them, closing it behind him with a careful click. He was scared to turn and face Arthur, because when he did he was faced with a strong, dark demon of man that had possessed Merlin in his dreams. Arthur pressed him against the door with his body, the strength of it making Merlin groan because it meant that his bruised side was bring crushed between the door and Arthur's chest.

"Shh, Arthur, I'm okay, I'm not fragile." And with those words, Merlin boldly pressed his lips to Arthur's and pulled them into a long embrace. Arthur ended the embrace, only to lift Merlin up and carry him to the sofa, where he laid Merlin down and clambered on top of him, kissing him passionately into the cushions of the sofa.

Regardless of how amazing and sexy this moment was, and the fact that they were both teenage boys with raging hard-ons in their trousers, Merlin's mind couldn't help but remind him that Arthur had probably done this with countless girls, had probably carried Gwen across the room, or up the stairs, had kissed her with a passion equal to the one Merlin was receiving right now.

Merlin used all of his will power to push Arthur away and sit himself up. "No," He said firmly, holding his hand against Arthur's chest, feeling the rippling muscles beneath his shift – _Oh God_. Arthur looked absolutely mortified and began to apologise once again.

"Was I hurting you? Is the bruise really painful? Was I too"—

-"Arthur, we shouldn't be doing this. You have a girlfriend, who's our friend," Merlin pointed out, looking at Arthur whilst trying to regain his breath.

"Who fancies one of our mates," Arthur countered, returning the strong gaze.

"Yeah but she's not making out with him and taking him home, Arthur, you need to break up with her, or come out, or both. This-" He said, gesturing between them, "-isn't fair on anyone."

Arthur hung his head and nodded slowly. "I know, Merlin, I know. But you can't deny the connection we've got, can you? You're all I've been thinking about all day, you're driving me fucking crazy."

Merlin nodded, biting his lip and breathing hard. "I know, it's the same with me, Arthur. How about we have a drink? Maybe when you're a little more relaxed you'll be able to make sense of things, and speak to Gwen tonight?"

"Yeah, yeah okay," Arthur replied, standing up and heading into Merlin's kitchen – or what he thought was Merlin's kitchen – to get some drinks.

"Arthur, that's the bathroom."

* * *

><p>When Morgana came by to pick Merlin up, she walked in to see Arthur and Merlin watching something on TV on the sofa. Merlin lifted his head and smiled brightly, a little blush covering his cheeks to signify he'd had a bit to drink. "Hi Morgana! Are we ready?"<p>

Morgana nodded and led the boys out to her car. Arthur was able to hold his drink a bit better than Merlin, but they were both sober enough to get in to places tonight. If they were too drunk, they'd just be left on the kerb. Both Merlin and Arthur sat in the back, aware of each other and comfortable, but they weren't looking at each other.

"You guys alright?" Morgana asked, as neither of them were speaking. Merlin bit his lip and smiled, nodding his head.

"We're fine Morgana, you look really pretty tonight by the way. You're gonna be #1 on the Wanted List." This made Morgana giggle and they finally reached town, parking along the road and waiting for everyone else to turn up.

Lance and Gwen appeared arm in arm. Gwen was wearing a cute white dress with a little bit of lace on the arms, and Lance was in a simple dress shirt and jeans. Arthur smiled at the pair, nerves obvious in his eyes. Merlin nudged him in the side. Tonight was the make or break moment.

Gwaine appeared next, with Leon trailing after. They were dressed similarly to Lance and Arthur. "Wow, Morgana, you look gorgeous!" Gwaine expressed his adoration straight away, and Morgana rolled her eyes at Merlin, but she allowed Gwaine to take her arm.

"Right, let's go!" They went to a couple of different clubs until they found one with real cheap drinks and a good music taste. Everyone was dancing in a group, but Morgana and Arthur were attracting male and female strangers. Morgana was lapping it all up, but Arthur was quite rigid and awkward around the girls that were gravitating towards him. Merlin was also feeling the same, his eyes locked on what Arthur would do. Would he push them away, would he come over to Merlin instead?

Arthur suddenly decided it was time. He grabbed hold of Gwen and took her to a quiet area of the club, with seating. Some of the girls turned their eyes to Merlin and were about to come over, until he held up his hands and mouthed "Gay, sorry". Soon enough they were gone.

Lance and Merlin were dancing together, laughing about and watching Gwaine fight off the other men around Morgana. She seemed quite impressed with it all. Merlin tried to look subtly for Arthur and Gwen but he couldn't see them anymore.

"Want a drink?" Merlin asked Lance in the loud music and they made their way over to the bar. They had a couple of shots each, pulling faces and taking photos of the reactions. They didn't notice when Gwen appeared by Lance's side, her arm around his waist with a quivering smile. Merlin's head flashed warning bells. If Gwen was back, where was Arthur? He looked around quickly, and say a blonde haired man leave out the front door.

He followed quickly and when he got outside, the sudden intake of shots hit him and he staggered, almost falling to the ground. Except someone had grabbed hold of him before he fell. Warm, strong hands, a nice smile. Merlin gazed up and saw a gorgeous, blonde man was holding him.

"You alright?" He said in a thick, cockney accent and then Merlin's mind told him it wasn't Arthur, leave, get away. But this man just looked _so nice, smelled so good._ He finally got to his feet and stared at this man with glossy eyes. His hair was longer than Arthur's, and he wasn't as muscly, but he had a cheeky grin and was flashing it at Merlin.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good," Merlin croaked out into the evening air, which was quite cold. "I'm looking for a friend." He managed to say, glancing around for someone that wasn't this man. This man was trouble and he knew it.

"Well, you're gonna fall again at this rate. Come and sit down," The blonde man said, patting down on a bench. Merlin followed him like a lost puppy and put his arms around himself, shivering a little. "Cold are you? What's your name?"

"Merlin," Merlin said without thinking, and the man had placed a hand on his cheek. Merlin was shocked, looking at the blonde with wide eyes, a deer in headlights expression, and the guy started to lean in. Merlin started panicking and was looking for a way out, until he – Thank _God_ – heard a familiar, strong voice. His saviour.

"Excuse me," Arthur said, pushing this blonde man away. "I'd appreciate if you don't touch him, thanks." Merlin's brain was melting, Arthur was coming to his rescue, it was like some drunk, swirling fairy tale.

The blonde man looked like he was going to try for a fight, but he was smart and noted that Arthur looked awfully strong. He stood up and left, waving to Merlin and blowing him a kiss. Merlin shuddered.

"You look cold Merlin," Arthur said softly, and Merlin moulded into Arthur's arm.

"I am," He weakly replied, and Arthur got his phone out.

"Come on, let's take you home." Arthur called a taxi and sent texts to everyone, saying that he was going to take Merlin home. And, true to his word, Arthur did, dropping him off at his house and letting Merlin in. In the taxi, Merlin had nearly drifted off to sleep. Arthur helped him up the stairs to Merlin's bedroom and laid the boy down, kissing him on the lips tenderly.

"I'll come and see you tomorrow, okay Merlin? Sleep well," He whispered, leaving with another kiss and allowing Merlin to have sweet, drink-induced dreams involving Arthur in shining armour, fighting the golden dragon.


	8. Chapter 8

Merlin woke up with his first major hangover and the strong smell of coffee in his bedroom. That confused him because he didn't really like coffee unless it had loads of sugar, and the only person who knew how to make that was his uncle, Gaius. He covered his eyes and yawned, trying to move up in the bed.

"Oh, you're awake," A familiar voice said and he froze. Was he still dreaming? Because in his mind, Arthur had never left last night, and he just heard Arthur's voice. Was his mind playing tricks on him? Finally opening his eyes, Merlin noticed Arthur, cleaned up and dressed for a new day, sitting on his beanie bag in the corner of his bedroom with a mug of coffee in his hands. He looked at Merlin with unmasked adoration, tilting his head at him as he roused himself to awakeness. "Did you have a good sleep?"

"What are you doing here?" Merlin said immediately, feeling bad about it but it was the morning, he had a horrible hangover, with a pounding headache and dry throat, and dreads that Arthur had slept there the whole night. "You didn't stay, did you? Have you been there all night? You must have a horrible back ache!"

Arthur smiled at him lazily and took a sip of the coffee in his hand. "No Merlin, it's okay. I went back to mine last night, but as I was leaving your uncle saw me and asked what had happened. I explained that I drove you home and that I'd see you in the morning, and then Gaius told me that you like coffee with loads of sugar and that the key is hidden under the plant pot next to the step." Arthur smiled once again, the corners of his eyes crinkling up in the cutest way possible.

"Oh my God Arthur, you really don't have to be here," Merlin was suddenly self-conscious, even if he was swimming with joy inside – Arthur had made him a coffee with sugar, on his bedside table, and was checking if he was okay. Arthur was absolutely adorable and Merlin didn't even want to deny it anymore. He wanted to embrace it and claim it as his own. And that reminded him of last night.

"Did you break up with Gwen?" Arthur nodded his head and sighed. He looked around the room and took in every detail of it, it seemed. Merlin felt like he wasn't going to impress Arthur enough and that his room was messy, Merlin himself was messy and probably smelt really bad and Arthur still wanted to be around him.

"It's already online on Facebook. She was really understanding though, it might've hurt a bit but as she knows about me being, y'know, then it's all okay for her," Arthur explained, looking around for Merlin's laptop and grabbing hold of it. "Mind if I sit down with you?"

Merlin didn't even think about it before saying yes. Arthur was already on the bed next to him with the computer in his lap, soon onto Facebook and there it was, on the top news:

Gwen Holden went from being "in a relationship" to "single".

They looked at the comments, the first one being from Lance:

"Hope you're alright Gwen, come see me after work? 3"

"That's sweet," Merlin said, looking up to Arthur cautiously. Arthur nodded his head and agreed, looking back. They both understood that Gwen and Lance were blatantly made for each other, and once Arthur gave them a blessing of sorts they'd feel fine about it. "So what else is going on online?" Merlin asked, yawning a bit and looking to Arthur for answers.

But Arthur's face had changed. Suddenly it was dark and there was a sense of growing anger. Merlin frowned and realised it was something to do with what was on the screen – and when he looked for himself, he noticed what was causing the anger. Vivian had uploaded a mobile photo to Facebook. And the photo was of them.

It was probably taken in the car park at college yesterday, when Arthur gave him a lift home. She'd managed to capture the two of them kissing, with Arthur's hand on his neck and Merlin's hands in Arthur's hair. Merlin bit his lip in shame, and then his eyes glazed over the comments.

Morgana Redford: "This is not cool, Vivian. You're a really evil person."  
>Leon Jacobs: "What the fuck Viv! D:"<br>Lance Brooks: "You know that Vivian, this is the lowest of the low. You think this will make us hate Arthur and Merlin, do you? Well face it, you're just a bitch and we're going to stand by our friends, not upload private photos of them to Facebook. Back off from Merlin, yeah, he didn't do anything to you."

Merlin was eternally grateful for his friends, especially for Lance and how much he stood up for him. But it was still too close for comfort – considering Arthur and Gwen had just split up, now that made it look like there was a big scandal.

"Shit, Arthur," Merlin said softly, scared to look at Arthur because of what his reaction would be. The boy was hunched over the laptop, intensely staring at the screen as if he was willing it to all disappear in front of him. Merlin placed his hand on Arthur's arm, carefully, and the blonde almost flinched. He looked up at Merlin with troubled eyes and shook his head.

"Why does this have to happen to us? What do we do? What will Gwen think!" Arthur was in despair, and Merlin made to shush him, to calm him down. He turned properly to face him, really not caring that the bed sheets had moved to reveal Merlin in just boxers – these details weren't important right now. What was important was that this silly picture issue was going to fuck up their whole friendship group unless they did something.

"Could we see Gwen today? She works at the local café, right? We could go see her on her break," Merlin suggested and it seemed to work a treat. Arthur agreed and began shooing him into the bathroom, telling him to get ready and stop being a slob. "I still have a hangover, you know!" Was his remark back but it didn't work.

Within twenty minutes, they were already into Arthur's car and heading over to the little café where Gwen worked on the weekends. It was cute and pretty looking on the outside, like it should be in the centre of a little country village instead of in a big, modern town. The interior matched, too – it was like a blast to a different century and the Royal Oak, regal red colours and warm lighting really got to Merlin. He loved it in here, how had he never been here before?

Merlin found himself a seat on one of the tables and Arthur went to the counter, ordering the two of them milkshakes but also asking after Gwen. When he spoke to a different girl at the counter he could see the girl falter at Arthur asking to see Gwen, like maybe she knew about their split or even about the photo. But she finally went and retrieved Gwen from the back, who still smiled cheerily when she saw Arthur. Had she not seen the photo yet, then? Merlin wondered, arching his neck to try and lip read what Gwen was saying.

Arthur came back after a couple of minutes and Merlin did his best to feign interest, like he hadn't been spying on them at all and was just glad to have his strawberry milkshake to sip on. Arthur looked at him and smiled uneasily.

"She said she'd meet us outside in ten minutes, so drink up," Arthur explained, and Merlin was disheartened. He now had to rush such a beautiful milkshake? Merlin began slurping furiously to make sure he drank it all, and it made Arthur laugh. Inside, Merlin gave himself a pat on the back for getting the gorgeous expression onto the blonde's face.

They met Gwen at the front of the café, and made their way towards a park just around the corner. Merlin noted that although they were no longer together, Gwen was still walking comfortably close to Arthur and almost linked arms with him. Merlin thought it was really cute – but somewhere inside him, there was a part of Merlin that wanted to walk like that with Arthur and link arms with him. He wanted to do that. It wasn't fair.

"So what's up guys?" Gwen asked cheerfully when they sat down. She'd put a coat around her work uniform to keep it clean, and Arthur sat on one side of her. Merlin decided to pick sitting the other side of Arthur instead. Although he liked Gwen, he wasn't sure if she could be violent or not. But Merlin decided to leave everything to Arthur. The boy knew what he was doing, most of the time.

"Vivian has uploaded a photo of Merlin and I to Facebook, and, well, we didn't let her take it. She did it in spite and I think she's trying to cause problems between everyone. We wanted to make sure that you knew what the real truth was before you found out from her," Arthur started to explain, and reached for his phone to show Gwen the photo.

On some sort of impulse, Merlin stopped Arthur's hand and piped up instead. "Basically, we kissed each other by accident yesterday morning and then again after college. And Vivian managed to take a photo of that and she's making out like Arthur was cheating on you or something which he totally wasn't because we didn't mean to kiss each other or anything, it just happened and we don't want to hurt your feelings and I'm really sorry Gwen, I'm sorry for making it look like I was stealing your boyfriend or somethi-"

"Merlin, shut up." Gwen said quickly, looking completely serious. It made Merlin seriously scared and, Oh God, did he just say everything he just did? He was going to open his mouth to apologise but Gwen held up a hand and she laughed.

"Guys, you have my blessing," She said and Merlin frowned. In fact, so did Arthur. What on earth was Gwen talking about? She was looking at them with big smiling eyes and obviously had something planned in her head that the two weren't aware of. "I, officially since right now, am saying that you two have my blessing to be together as a couple. Merlin, you didn't steal Arthur from me because Arthur was never rightfully mine. He just hadn't met Mr. Right yet."

Merlin remembered that Gwen was the only person except for Merlin to know that Arthur was gay, and that Gwen and Arthur were only together to save some sort of face. Gwen was still smiling with that big, cute grin of hers and Merlin didn't know whether to be happy or worried.

"But now he has met Mr. Right, and he's a babbling idiot." Merlin took offence to that and then it made sense why. He was Arthur's Mr. Right. Gwen was basically saying that they belonged together. Merlin finally smiled and ducked his head behind Arthur so Gwen wouldn't see his blush. Arthur was blushing a little too, and he looked at Merlin with such adoration that it made Merlin feel like he was a little kitten, wrapped up in cotton wool and being snuggled in such big, strong arms.

Gwen stood from the bench and folded her arms. She smiled at the two of them and glanced at the time. "I need to get back guys, and Arthur, you know what's next for you to do." And with that and a little wave, she was back to work and Merlin with sitting with Arthur, on a bench, awfully close and kind of snuggled up.

Arthur placed a kiss on Merlin's forehead and hugged him tighter. "How about we go home now and watch a movie or something?"

Merlin nodded his head and smiled, glad to be in his knight in shining armour's arms.


End file.
